The present invention relates to a retaining clip for retaining two mating pieces together and finds particular utility in retaining an electrical header connector to its mating header.
The widespread use of pluggable connectors for electrically interconnecting electronic components has greatly simplified the assembly and/or repair of electronic equipment since assembly of components or replacement of components has merely required the plugging or unplugging of a number of connectors.
However, the very simplicity of the act of plugging and unplugging components to effect electrical interconnection or disconnection has spawned its own unique set of problems -- spontaneous disconnection of electrical components by vibration and/or inadvertent unplugging of connectors such as when they are accidentally snagged by a repairman working on an adjacent part. In order to avoid the spontaneous and/or accidental disconnection problems, prior workers have devised headers with locking tabs formed as an integral part thereof. Although these headers with locking tabs have performed quite satisfactorily, they tend to be somewhat larger than the tabless headers thus requiring a little more space than existing headers.
Another problem encountered with the headers with integral locking tabs has been the breaking off of the tabs with the necessity for replacement of the entire header.